Pang Liangji handed the unconscious Xiao Ran to a servant to be taken home through the back gate, while he remained on horseback among his fellow disciples. Seeing that all her companions had arrived, Tuoba Sanniang stopped playing her zither and snapped at him, "Go keep your wife company, cripple! Stop getting in our way!"
Pang Liangji smiled bitterly. "Though Master expelled me from the school, my senior brothers and sisters have treated me kindly enough to keep this sixth disciple among the Seven Sunset Techniques. Even if my blood splashes the ground today, I must stay here."
The wind blew hard beneath the high heavens, with autumn sorrow stretching ten thousand miles; his words carried a desolate grandeur.
He cupped his fists and addressed the assembled people of the Rivers and Lakes in a ringing voice. "You heroes came to attend my wedding and retirement ceremony. The Pang Family is deeply ashamed of our poor hospitality. The truth is that enemies have been working behind the scenes to sow discord between the Setting Sun Courtyard and the martial community of the Central Plains..."
He had intended to explain the dispute, but before he could finish, someone in the dense crowd cried out shrilly, "The Setting Sun Courtyard's crimes have filled its cup! You harbor treasonous designs and only entered the Central Plains because you could no longer survive in Guanzhong! Unless you explain the matter of Chen Shigu today, don't think you can leave so easily!" Judging by the accent, the speaker seemed to hail from Jiannan Circuit.
Unable to make out who had spoken, Pang Liangji was bewildered. He called out, "My school may not qualify as an illustrious, upright sect, but surely 'treasonous designs' is stretching things?"
The heroes of the Central Plains exchanged glances, none of